Pensioners wait outside the National Bank of Greece to get their monthly pensions on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

Another headache for Greece, as an apparent “technical hitch” delays pension payments.

This report from the FT:

The Greek government was struggling on Thursday to complete payments to more than 2m pensioners after claiming that a “technical hitch” delayed an earlier disbursement.

Elderly Athenians waited at branches of the National Bank of Greece, the state-controlled lender handling the bulk of pension payments, which are staggered over several days.

“Normally I only withdraw half the money at the end of the month but today I’m taking it all,” said Sotiria Zlatini, a 75-year-old former civil servant. “There are so many rumours going round because of the government’s problems and what happened two days ago.”

On Tuesday, the main state social security fund, IKA, delayed pension payments by almost eight hours. The heavily loss-making fund relies on a monthly subsidy from the budget to be able to cover its obligations.

Time for a look at European stock markets: all the main indices are in positive territory, just about. The FTSE 100 index in London has edged up 0.1% (nearly 9 points) to 6995.07. The Dax in Frankfurt is up 0.5% at 11,491.05 while the CAC in Paris is up 3 points at 5042.44. The Ibex in Madrid is 0.26% ahead at 11,408.8 and the FTSE MiB in Milan gained 0.5% to 23,118.73.

“We all try not to resort to ‘easy solutions’ when it comes to violence matters. It’s imperative not to look for easy solutions. It is not a solution to fighting violence with violence, or by running away”.

And then he started his speech on financial matters by launching an attack on Greece’s lenders that imposed austerity in Greece: “There is also another type of violence, a very ‘civilized’ violence, but at the same time brutal and destructive”, he said .

Energy consumption has been a drag on GDP and consumer spending figures for the first quarter across much of Europe.

Households have switched off their central heating following one of the mildest winters on record. It means there is a drop in income for energy suppliers, but not really a drop in general activity across the economy.

France enjoyed the third mildest winter in 50 years and that led to a 3.2% drop in consumer spending on energy (though the word enjoyed is out of place if the implications for global warming are considered).

There was a 1% rise in the consumption of durable goods. So the French consumer is feeling better than the headline figures would appear to indicate

Moody’s: risk of Grexit is rising

Moody’s has issued another warning on Greece, a day after downgrading its credit rating and plunging it deeper into junk territory.

Today it is warning the impact of a Greek exit from the euro should not be underestimated.

The direct economic and financial impact of a Greek exit from the euro area would be small, but an exit would undermine the euro area’s longer-term resilience somewhat and could yet trigger a more immediate confidence shock, disrupting government debt markets.

Moody’s expects Greece (Caa2, negative outlook) to reach an agreement with its creditors and avoid default. However, lack of progress so far means the probability of a default, and of exit, is rising.

Default would not necessarily lead to Greece’s exit from the euro area. The chain of events that could lead to exit is difficult to predict. Moody’s would expect negotiations to continue for a period. However, should exit occur, it would set a significant precedent, undermining the resilience of a currency union that was designed to be irreversible.

Greece leaving the euro area would offer an example that might be followed in future. That would inevitably influence the course of future reform and fiscal consolidation programmes. It would raise, even if only a little, the likelihood that they too could end in default and exit.